FIFA Master Alumni - Where are they now? - Mirella Arnhold
Mirella Arnhold
Current position: Broadcast Manager for FIFA World Cups with HBS (Host Broadcast Services) and Summer and Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games with OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Services), Sports Commentator for TV Globo and SporTV. I am also an Alpine Skiing Coach, Athlete’s Commission Member and Winter Sports Event Manager for the Brazilian Snow Sports Federation (CBDN), Olympian.
Year of graduation: 2012 (12th Edition)
Nationality: Brazilian and German
What does your current role involve?
My journey in sport has been quite unique, and I feel very privileged to have experienced the international sports world from multiple perspectives and across a wide range of stakeholders in the last three decades. Beyond my experience as an Olympian and high-performance athlete, having had the honour of representing my country at two Olympic Games, I have worked with national and international sports federations, organising committees and broadcast operations both in front of the cameras as a sports commentator (for Brazil’s leading television broadcasters TV Globo and SporTV) and behind the scenes with OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Services) and HBS (Host Broadcast Services). I have had the opportunity of contributing to more than fifteen major global sporting events, spanning Summer and Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games and FIFA World Cups.
This summer (2026), I will be working with HBS as Senior Broadcast Liaison Manager at the FIFA Men’s World Cup 2026 (Canada, Mexico & USA), supporting the delivery of broadcast operations, where I will manage and oversee broadcast liaison operations at the venue, serving as the main point of contact for international broadcasters and working closely with FIFA, Broadcast Services, Production, Technical Operations and Engineering, Support Services, Logistics, and local functional areas to ensure all broadcast facilities, unilateral services, and operational requirements are delivered efficiently and according to the highest international standards.
Sport and nature have always been at the core of my values and sense of purpose. While continuing to bring forward and champion the Olympic values of excellence, resilience, respect, and collaboration through my work in international sport, over the past six years I have also dedicated myself to building CBKK, a venture builder focused on enabling sustainable businesses and emerging technologies with positive socio-environmental impact, particularly in the Amazon and Brazil’s marine and coastal ecosystems. Contributing to social and environmental impact through innovation, collaboration, and the well-being of local communities has increasingly become a central part of my professional journey and personal purpose.
Which aspects of the FIFA Master course have helped you most in your career?
The FIFA Master strongly contributed to enhancing my experience as an Olympic athlete by giving me a broader and more integrated perspective of the international sporting landscape within a truly multicultural environment. Having had the opportunity throughout my personal and professional journey to live in different countries and experience diverse cultures and languages, the programme naturally complemented my international background by bringing together students from many nationalities, cultures, and professional experiences while living and studying across three different countries. Beyond its multidisciplinary academic approach across humanities, management and law of sport, the FIFA Master was an extraordinary opportunity to learn from one another daily through constant exchanges of perspectives, ideas, and experiences. Looking back now, I realize how accurately the FIFA Master reflected the reality of international sport management: highly dynamic, multicultural, fast-paced, and built around collaboration among people from different backgrounds working together under pressure towards shared goals. It is also very special to continue crossing paths with FIFA Master graduates around the world while working at major sporting events, all of us contributing in different ways and connected by the same passion and values that makes sport so unique and transformative.
What advice would you give to future students?
My biggest advice to future FIFA Master students would be to learn from one another every single day. The greatest richness of the programme is not only its academic excellence, but the incredible diversity of the people around you. Be open, curious, humble and willing to genuinely connect with your classmates, professors and guest speakers, because everyone carries unique experiences, perspectives, cultures and life stories that can teach you something valuable. Living abroad and experiencing different cultures, languages, and perspectives can be both challenging and deeply transformative, teaching us to listen more carefully, observe, adapt, respect differences, and see the world through broader and more empathetic perspectives. In many ways, this is exactly what international sport is about: learning how to collaborate, communicate, and connect with people from completely different realities while working together towards shared goals. Looking back today, I believe that the human connections, cultural exchanges and shared experiences built during the FIFA Master became the most meaningful and valuable parts of this unique and special journey.
FIFA Master - International Master in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport, ranked Europe's No.1 course a record 13 times by SportBusiness.
Organised by CIES in cooperation with De Montfort University (UK), SDA Bocconi School of Management (Italy) and the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland).
"CIES, 30+ years of impacting how sport is managed worldwide" & "FIFA Master, 25+ years of Excellence in Sport Business Education"
